I suspect that the potential Ottawa owners will be willing to sink some of their own cash into a new stadium (linked to a new hockey arena) to support a new team. The haggling comes in the form of figuring out how much they will contribute and how much the city will pick up.
To the original question, 12. I suspect that Cohon is making moves to see if a deal can be made in Moncton once Ottawa is firmly aboard. Getting a franchise into the Maritimes would then truly make the league pan-Canadian and would be more attractive to national advertisers.
Once that is accomplished, you try to find ownership for QC and create a Quebec rivalry and build the RDS television numbers.
That 12th team might be tough, but I would go find that Mark Cuban or whoever and convince them to locate a franchise in Windsor(Detroit). By officially locating the office in Windsor and playing games in Detroit, you might be able to slip the Canadian Content rules by US regulators.
It becomes even more attractive as long as Detroit continues to have a perennial dud of an NFL team in the same market.
If not Windsor/Detroit then I'd like to point out to most of you who don't live in my area, but Kitchener(Waterloo Region=Kit. Waterloo, Cambridge) has over 500,000 people here. Greater London has about the same amount. Throw in Woodstock which is right between them and you have another 35,000. That population base would be big enough to support a club.
The reality of that however, is that we are quite hockey mad and little else reaches our radar. We DO have good support for our CIS football teams. The Western Mustangs and the WLU Golden Hawks create interest so football has a toehold here if exploited properly.